SUPERLATIVES surrounded Senator Barack Obama’s landslide victory on Tuesday. The Revd Jim Wallis of the Sojourners described the election as a “watershed moment in the life and history of the US; a milestone the whole nation could celebrate and embrace as a profound opportunity for deeper reconciliation and social justice”.
It was also a moment that demanded prophetic leadership and the power of a faith-inspired movement, he said. “The best movements have spiritual foundations.”
Both parties had Christian supporters. Campaigners from the “Episcopal Church for Obama” announced that they had hosted 491 events, attended 3466 events, made 10,498 phone calls, and raised more than $29,000 — some measure of the work that had gone on behind the scenes in small organisations.
Hopes have been expressed of a new international vision to tackle world poverty. The Roman Catholic development agency Progressio described the victory as “a momentous day”, in a year “when the tectonic plates of international relations shifted and hope for a new world order was reborn”.
Hopes were high, too, in Kenya. The Archbishop of Kenya, the Most Revd Benjamin Nzimbi, said before the election that an Obama win would be “a great victory to the forces of change across the world”. He had prayed that the American people would be guided into making a good choice. Commentators have pointed out that US assistance in the battle against HIV/AIDS is crucial to its relations on the continent.
The Bishop of Maseno West in Kenya, the Rt Revd Joseph Wasonga, told Ecumenical News International: “I want to congratulate Obama. I think his winning will bring hope and healing to the whole world. His election has shown that America is truly democratic. . . I hope he will be able to challenge bad governance in Africa.”
The Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, has invited the US President-elect to visit his ancestral home at Moneygall in Co. Offaly, after research by the Church of Ireland Rector found familial ties with the parish writes Greg Ryan
Canon Stephen Neill, Rector of Cloughjordan (above) in neighbouring Tipperary, which includes Moneygall as a parochial union, discovered that Mr Obama’s great-great-great-grandfather, Fulmouth Kearney, hailed from the village and is recorded in the parish records as having emigrated to the United States in 1850.
Canon Neill said on Tuesday that it felt as though the parish was “on the cusp of history. There is much to celebrate”